1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed in general to communications systems and methods for operating same. In one aspect, the present invention relates to devices and methods for managing the identity of media content data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a wide variety of media content such as music, movies, television shows, games, audiobooks, podcasts, and ringtones has become available in digital form. The ability to easily and ubiquitously access this media content through networks of all kinds has accelerated its consumption by consumers and business users alike. In particular, it has become increasingly popular to use mobile devices to search for such digitized media content, and once found, acquire, consume and store it for subsequent reuse.
However, it is common for the same media content to be available from numerous sources, each of which may use a different method of describing its creator, title, or other associated information. For example, many media content sources typically implement a proprietary identification scheme based on an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file schema or ID3 tags that accommodate information such as the artist's name, track number, song title, etc. However, there is currently no uniform approach to describing such metadata. Furthermore, no approach currently exists to cross-reference such metadata or to translate it from one media content management system to another.
As a result, it is not unusual for a user to inadvertently download, or even pay for, the same media content multiple times. In addition to the possibility of experiencing frustrating delays while a duplicate file is being downloaded, redundant downloads to the same mobile device place an unneeded burden on wireless network infrastructures. Furthermore, storage of duplicate media content files that are referenced with different identifiers unnecessarily consumes limited storage space within a mobile device. Moreover, the managing the identities of these duplicate files is tedious, time consuming, and annoying to the user of the mobile device.